Search ladder (in order): 1) official agency site (site-restricted search on the agency domain) → 2) general web for the manual/PDF/report by exact title → 3) YouTube/vendor docs for how-to → 4) GitHub for tooling → 5) Reddit/forums (r/civilengineering, Eng-Tips, vendor communities) for practitioner reality → 6) TRID/NCHRP for research depth.
Classify EVERY saved source (frontmatter source-class):
1 Official/authoritative · 2 Professional guidance · 3 Tutorial · 4 Example project · 5 Community discussion · 6 Code/tool · 7 Opinion.
The rule that keeps you licensed: classes 1–2 support engineering conclusions; 3–7 support learning and leads only — anything from 3–7 that would touch real work gets verified against a class 1–2 source (or PE judgment) FIRST, and the class 1–2 source is what gets cited. Record verified-against: + date in the source note.
Save protocol (60 seconds): one source note per find → link · class · date-checked · one-line “useful for” · cross-link to the workflow/project that wanted it. Unsaved finds are re-searched finds. Maintenance: dead links surface via Standards Update Tracker quarterly pass (automatable — Starter Automation Projects #9).